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Thursday, February 9, 2017

Welcome John Bowers to TBA!

Hi all, I’m thrilled to begin building a list here at the Bent Agency. We already have an amazing roster of writers, and it will be my great pleasure to find talented authors of adult literary fiction, science-fiction and nonfiction to join under the Bent Agency banner.

You can learn a little bit more about me here, and take a look at the agency’s submission guidelines here. For those considering sharing your work with me, the following should give you a good sense of my overall tastes.

In general, I’m most intrigued by fiction that:

· Is smart, edgy, and dark

· Is timely (particularly politically)

· Features an unreliable narrator

· Is atmospheric and gritty

· Delves into conspiracy theories

· Features down-and-out characters (especially from the South), but crafts them so that they

exist well beyond stereotype

· Has a charged sense of hyper-realism

· Offers a character-driven story with a sweeping, historical scope

· Evokes a sense of internal and/or civil unrest

· Treats the lives of regular people as though they existed on a grand scale

With that said, here’s some of the fiction that I love:

· STONER by John Williams

· ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren

· THE SHIPPING NEWS by Annie Proulx

· BARKSKINS by Annie Proulx

· COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER by Michael Ondaatje

· SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy

· FAY by Larry Brown

· THE OPTIMIST’S DAUGHTER by Eudora Welty

· ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Falkner

· THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

· 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

· A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS by Marlon James

· CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE by George Saunders

· THE DISPOSSESSED by Ursula Le Guin

· THE HANDMAID’S TALE by Margaret Atwood

· WHITE NOISE by Don DeLillo

As far as nonfiction goes, I’m looking for books that:

· Help us understand the world

· Showcase hard truths

· Uplift and enlighten us

Some of the titles that have most affected me include:

· THE WORST HARD TIME by Timothy Egan

· FACTORY MAN by Beth Macy

· ALL THE SHAH’S MEN by Stephen Kinzer

· KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST by Adam Hochschild

· RIVER OF DOUBT by Candice Millard

· THE ASCENT OF MONEY by Niall Ferguson

· THE POWER BROKER by Robert Caro

· DIRTY WARS by Jeremy Scahill

· THE LOOMING TOWER by Lawrence Wright

· CONSIDER THE LOBSTER AND OTHER ESSAYS by David Foster Wallace

· OUTLIERS by Malcom Gladwell

· MONEYBALL by Michael Lewis

· BARBARIAN DAYS by William Finnegan

For anyone curious about my tastes beyond books, I enjoy:

· Literally every one of the Coen brothers’ films

· Westworld

· Mr. Robot

· The Wire

· Hypernormalisation

· Citizen Four

· Ex-Machina

· All of Wes Anderson’s films (but not equally, and yes, it’s true)

Alternatively, here’s a short list of what I’m NOT interested in:

· Epic, high fantasy

· Space opera (I like science-fiction, but the kind that’s geared towards the near future and

is also technology-based.)

· Stories that romanticize a particular time or place

· Stories that primarily explore the lives of college students

If you have something you think I’ll like, I’m currently open to queries and invite you to query me at bowersqueries@thebentagency.com. I’m very much looking forward to the stories you have to send me.